Same blog, new location

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Sunday Night Bowling

We spent time with the cousins and went bowling. Alexa, JD, and Kianna bowled the evening away. Unfortunately, Madison was knocked out on meds. Earlier in the afternoon, she had an allergic reaction and her eyes were itchy and swollen. Daddy ended up giving her allergy medicine to suppress her itchiness. We tried to wake her up but she couldn't get up. I hope the next time around we play Sunday night bowling, all the kids could join in on the fun.

National Museum Day

In the spirit of Smithsonian Museums, who offer free admission everyday, Museum Day Live! is an annual event hosted by Smithsonian magazine
in which participating museums
across the country open their doors
to anyone presenting a Museum Day
Ticket... for free.

So today, September 28, uncle Ian invited us to go to the Experience Music Project at Seattle Center which is a museum that's dedicated to the ideas and risk-taking that fuel contemporary popular culture. We had loads of fun looking at the fantasy exhibits, horror film exhibits, and jammin' in the jam rooms. Here's a video of Madi on the drums and uncle Ian on the electric guitar.

Another one?

Here we go again... another vacation for the Valdez family but this time we're bringing along Mama Marnie and Uncle Ian. Papa Ronnie was suppose to come with us but he got tied up with work and couldn't get the time off. It's our first time taking vacation during the middle of the school year and I was pretty hesitant to do it. We thought of doing summer vacation trip but we couldn't leave the Pacific Northwest. Mother Nature blest is with a fantastic summer!

What's that you say? Oh, you want to know where we are going? I thought you'd never ask. Before I tell you, I'd like to say that I love planning vacations and making the most out of them. I also like surprising the kids about trips so they don't know about this one. Well, at least I don't think they know. Okay, okay... I'll tell yah... it's no surprise, we're heading back to Southern California and Nevada in mid-October. I've got all the details laid out from our daily itineraries to the expense costs which also includes the mileage costs. I know I know I'm crazy. I'll keep up with the blog when we're on vacation, so stay tuned!!  Take a quick look at what we're doing while we're out of town.

First Day of Kindergarten and 4th Grade

It's already the new school year and there's no other way to celebrate it with some cake, cakepops to be exact.  I had one of my old high school friends customize them and put their names on them with special shaped cake pops of pencis, books, school buses, and apples.    We gave them back to school gifts this year.  They loved the UW key chains!  

Summer 2013

A lot of things happened since our last post.  My brother and I graduated and received our bachelor's degree from the University of Washington.  It made it special because the kids were able to witness me finish school.  I was able to show them the importance of going to school.  It was a struggle juggling church choir, full time work, school and the kids sports activities but it was all worth it.  

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Ever since Kianna joined the soccer club, she has enjoyed the competition and especially the friends she's made.  During the summer the team went to Yakima for a weekend tournament.  The team stayed at a hotel and they had lots of activities from water balloon toss to swimming to having a picnic.  Kianna's team placed 2nd in the tournament!

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We had a Gonzales family outing to Tillicum Village on Blake Island. The food was fantastic from the appetizer clams to the main dish, salmon.  The best part was exploring the island.  The beaches were so beautiful with Mount Rainier in the background.  After the boat ride back to Seattle waterfront, we were being tourists and visited the gum wall.  It was the first time the girls seen the attraction.  It was pretty grouse and sticky. 

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We also had adventures with the Valdez cousins.  We went to Point Defiance Zoo for a day and had a picnic at the zoo.  The kids saw the new tiger cub, fed the birds and saw not one but two polar bears!

JD, Kianna, Madison, Alexa at the touching pool

Madison's a jelly fish

Kianna's a starfish

Valdez Family Florida Funcation - Volume II

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Valdez Family Florida Funcation - Volume I

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Family History

I stumbled on our Guadiz family website (my mom's side of the family) recently and thought it was nice to see our family tree.  There are a lot of mis-spelling of names and some babies that haven't been added.  Our family keeps growing. 

The girls can look up their great-great grandfather's name and read the history of where the Guadiz family is from.  I wish there was one for each side of the family.  I should take this as a project but it'll have to wait until I graduate.

In 2010, I put a list of our imediate Guadiz family members together and had my sister make a family tree for my great-grandmothers birthday.  With her artistic talent, this is what she came up with and it's beautiful.  We've had a few more branches added to this tree since then.  The print is very tiny but I'll point out where Kianna and Madison is on the tree.  They are at the very top left corner in light blue. 

A few years ago, I started on Kianna and Madison's own family tree but it's still in a work in progress.  Once it's complete, I'll post it. 

Florida Vacation Trailer

Here's a short video of what happened while we were in Florida.  Our other videos will be up soon.   

Soccer Season

The season has begun.  Two evening practices for Kianna and one for Madison every week.  Thank goodness they are all at different times.  Kianna likes playing soccer because she has her friend, Ashley, that she's been playing with for the past 3 years.  It's nice to see them play together.  Hopefully Madison will learn to like sports.  I gave Kianna a choice to either choose sports or dancing.  She of course chose sports.  I also gave Madison the choice and she chose dance/ballet, of course.

Kianna's game schedule:

• Sat, Sept 15 @ 10:15am
• Sat, Sept 29 @ 4:30pm
• Sat, Oct 6 @ 11:30am
• Mon, Oct 15 @ 5:30pm
• Sat, Oct 20 @ 2:00pm
• Sat, Oct 27 @ 10:15am
• Sat, Nov 3 @ 12:45pm

Madison's game schedule:

• Sat, Sept 22 @ 11:20am
• Sat, Sept 29 @ 10:20am
• Mon, Oct 8 @ 5:50pm 
• Sat, Oct 13 @ 10:20am
• Tue, Oct 16 @ 5:50pm
• Sat, Oct 20 @ 3:20pm
• Sat, Oct 27 @1:20pm
• Sat, Nov 3 @ 3:20pm

Feel free to come and watch them play. All games are played at Wilson Playfield in Kent

Third grade

Today is Kianna's first day of third grade. She woke up early as I did and we both got ready. Not too soon after, Madison woke up. These girls are definitely on east coast time. Anyway, Kianna was eager to go to school because she's attending a new school with new friends to make. Luckily she's the kind of person that gets along with everyone.
When I got to work, I texted Tito to take pictures of her on her first day but this is the one and only picture that he could get out of her. He said that she was too cool for pictures.

I'll have to pick up a cupcake/cake to celebrate a new school year. I got this tradition from my aunt who always started and ended a school year with a celebration cake for my cousin, Gio.

Here's the big 3rd grader after school.  She looks happy and the first day of school was a success! 

Last day of summer vacation

Summer is coming to an end and so is our 2012 summer vacation. The girls wanted to soak up the sun in the resort pool for the last time while Tito packs the rest of the luggage.

Today is actually Kianna's first day of school. She'll be going to her new school tomorrow and I have to head back to work as well but on a good note, we have a three holiday weekend. We plan to relax and recover from our vacation. Although this trip was tiring, it was sooo much fun!! I'd do it all over again. My planning was successful and now I'm excited to plan the next trip, a family road trip to Cali with the girls cousins, JD and Alexa, next summer.

Polynesian Reosrt/Last day at Disney World

We've enjoyed our vacation and it's coming to an end. What better place to eat at our last character breakfast than 'Ohana' restaurant at the Polynesian Resort. I hope the girls remember all the events that happened, the good ones not the meltdowns.

It's our last day here at Disney World to visit the theme parks and we're heading for a second day to Magic Kingdom. Hope these memories will last forever with the kiddos.

After all the rides and shows, we are ending the night with fireworks at Cinderella's castle. Goodbye Disney World! We've had a wonderful time here and we hope to come back when the kids are older and capture more memories. (I know so cheesy but, I like that stuff.)

EPCOT

We woke up late this morning, which probably was a good thing. We needed to catch up on some needed rest. We are now headed to the last park here, EPCOT. At lunch we will be dining with the princesses but for right now, we are waiting in line for our bus to come.

We rode the Nemo ride and talke with Crush. This was the coolest exit ever. Once you exit, you enter into an aquarium. (Sorry forgot to take a picture.  I was too excited.)

We've been almost around the world which most of the time was spent at United Kingdom because of Kianna.  She wantes to go to UK for our next family vacation but we told her we would go there when she turns 18. Anyway, we did half of the world and headed back to Soarin by boat to future land, just in time to use our fast pass. After going on most of the rides in that area, it started pouring rain. I had to run and get the stroller and by the time I came back to them, I was drenched.  Tito and the girls put on their ponchos and then we headed towards Norway to eat dinner with the princesses. The girls also greeted their uncles a happy birthday.

By the time dinner was over the park was closed and we headed outside to the bus and now we are stuck in this crazy line waiting for a bus back to the hotel. We are definitely going to drive tomorrow. Thy already filled up 3 buses and hopefully we'll get on the next one. Tomorrow will be out last day and hopefully we get better weather.  Next time we come back we can do the other half of traveling the world. 

Disney Hollywood Studio

It's pouring rain and were getting the edge of hurricane Isaac over Lake Buena Vista but the girls are ready to brave the storm.

We got our fast passes for toy story mania and visited Buzz and Woody. We did a backlot tour and now were having lunch with playhouse Disney characters (June, agent Oso, Handy Manny, and Jake from the Neverland pirates).

After eating lunch, the rain pretty much stopped and it was humid but still bearable. I'd rather have this weather than the sun beaming down on us. For as long as we've been here, this is our first time experiencing Florida rain.

Madison rode tower of terror for the first time. She did really good too! As a matter of fact, she rode it twice.

We really enjoyed the great company with other people in line and the conversations we had. Kianna met a 6 year old girl from Houston, Texas on Rocking Roller Coaster. That little girl was too cute because she had her souther accent.  

While Tito and Kianna were waiting in line for Rocking Rller Coaster, Madison and I waited for a seat to watch Fantasmic.  It's such a great show.  Here's Madison waiting patiently for the show to start.  Mind you we were there 2 hours prior to the show and we got really good seats.

Grand Floridian/Magic Kingdom

Here we are at another character breakfast at the Grand Floridian. This time the girls saw Tigger, Pooh, Alice, the Mad Hatter, and Mary Poppins. After this, we're on our way to the monorail to head to the Magic Kingdom. We got a Filipino hook up because our server was Filipino and she gave us free placemats! lol


Here are the girls on 'it's a small world.' We're trying to do all enclosed rides so we can avoid the rain. The rain isn't bad at all. It's only sprinkling right now and hopefully it stays this way all day. Today, at this park, there is magic hours and the park closes at midnight. That means it going to be a long day for us.

 Here's the grils on Teacups.  Dumbo was a fun wait too. It's like dining at a restaurant.  When you come in the circus tent they give you a pager and have you wait in a play area where kids can climb and not be bored waiting in line.  Once the pager goes off you go to the "ring master" and they put you in line for the next flight on dumbo.  Pretty cool idea.


The day is almost over for us. We rode all the rides and watched the shows in tomorrow land fantasy land. That took most of our day. Kianna rode space mountain three times. We then watched the finale, night time spectacular (firework show) in front of Cinderella's castle. By this time Madi said she was sleepy but, the night isn't over. We're here until midnight. We are now in line for the fairies and Madison's is conked. The princess needs her beauty sleep.